


Outgoing

by littlegreyfish



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: BBC Sherlock - Freeform, M/M, Post Reichenbach, Texting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-03-02
Updated: 2012-04-25
Packaged: 2017-11-02 20:42:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/373130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlegreyfish/pseuds/littlegreyfish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Text messages to a dead man's phone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. March

[3/12]

Outgoing: [2:04am] I hate you.

Outgoing: [2:14am] Okay. That's a lie.

Outgoing: [2:16am] Not wholly a lie. But I miss you.

Outgoing: [2:31am] It's like a light has gone out.

Outgoing: [2:45am] Look at me. Texting you.

Outgoing: [2:46am] You can't even answer. I don't even know what's happened to your phone.

Outgoing: [2:50am] I need to sleep.

Outgoing: [10:03am] Good morning.

Outgoing: [10:05am] I almost expected you to text back.

Outgoing: [11:00am] I hope your phone is never recovered. I'd be committed if anyone saw these.

Outgoing: [11:36pm] Mycroft checked in on me today, the utter bastard.

Outgoing: [11:36pm] I see why you hate him.

Outgoing: [11:38pm] hated.

[3/13]

Outgoing: [2:26am] I can't sleep and it's your fault, I hope you know.

Outgoing: [2:30am] I think I'm becoming like you. Never eat. Never sleep. I almost took to shooting up the wall. To see if it would help.

Outgoing: [2:40am] I just wish I knew why you'd done it.

Outgoing: [9:30pm] I hate you.

[3/15]

Outgoing: [3:40am] Plse com back. Fr me.

Outgoing: [12:05pm] Christ. I blame you for letting Harry get me drunk.

Outgoing: [12:14pm] I meant that though.

[3/21]

Outgoing: [2:33am] I can't even make it a week without texting you.

Outgoing: [2:34am] What does that say?

Outgoing: [3:52am] You were supposed to answer that, Sherlock.

[3/22]

Outgoing: [6:03am] I wonder why I'm not getting any disconnected number messages.

Outgoing: [6:05am] Mycroft is probably keeping this line open. For my sanity.

Outgoing: [7:00am] If you can call it that.

Outgoing: [8:36pm] I hate you.

Outgoing: [11:38pm] No I don't.


	2. April

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Outgoing text messages to a dead man's phone.

APRIL

[4/02]

Outgoing: [7:36pm] I had to let my phone die to keep from texting you.

Outgoing: [7:39pm] When Mycroft showed up at the door going on about 72 missed calls, I figured it was time to turn it back on.

Outgoing: [7:40pm] It was 98 missed calls. 72 voice mails. I guess his grieving is affecting his memory.

Outgoing: [9:30pm] It's weird to think of Mycroft as grieving.

[4/03]

Outgoing: [8:48am] Good morning.

Outgoing: [11:36pm] Good night.

[4/04]

Outgoing: [2:04am] Okay. I couldn't sleep.

Outgoing: [2:36am] I miss you.

Outgoing: [2:45am] It's been... two years. I should be over you.

Outgoing: [2:45am] Your death!

Outgoing: [2:48am] Christ. Worried about a text to a dead person.

Outgoing: [3:00am] That felt startlingly relieving to say.

Outgoing: [4:03am] Doesn't mean I'm used to it…

Outgoing: [11:06am] The surgery has been more than lenient with my hours.

Outgoing: [11:12am] I think Sarah takes pity on me. Even after two years.

Outgoing: [12:02pm] But I really should start sleeping more.

[4/05]

Outgoing: [3:24am] Don't think sleep is going to happen tonight.

[4/07]

Outgoing: [4:55pm] I visited your grave again yesterday.

Outgoing: [5:02pm] I stayed there for hours. Till the sun set.

Outgoing: [5:12pm] I couldn't talk to you there, though.

Outgoing: [5:18pm] Too hard.

Outgoing: [5:27pm] At least… I can pretend you're just ignoring my texts.

Outgoing: [5:30pm] Though this is probably not the healthier option.

Outgoing: [6:27pm] I still hate you. For leaving.

Outgoing: [11:26pm] But I don't really hate you.

[4/08]

Outgoing: [4:21am] Sometimes I don't think you're really dead.

Outgoing: [4:30am] I know that's crazy.

Outgoing: [4:38am] But if I don't have hope… then what else do I have?

Outgoing: [4:44am] Insanity I guess.

[4/12]

Outgoing: [3:14pm] I thought I saw you today.

Outgoing: [3:15pm] I ran after you.

Outgoing: [3:15pm] Him.

Outgoing: [3:18pm] But you had disappeared.

Outgoing: [3:19pm] He had disappeared.

Outgoing: [3:23pm] He looked just like you. But his hair was a bit shorter.

Outgoing: [3:24pm] And he was thinner, if that was at all possible.

Outgoing: [4:03pm] Christ. I must be going crazy.

[4/13]

Outgoing: [11:25pm] Lestrade has roped me into helping with a case.

Outgoing: [11:26pm] It'd be a whole lot easier if you were here.

Outgoing: [11:31pm] But I like to think I've learned some from you.

[4/15]

Outgoing: [12:14am] We caught the killer.

Outgoing: [12:15am] Used some type of poison I can't pronounce that was undetectable.

Outgoing: [12:15am] In the bloody tea! Can you imagine.

Outgoing: [12:16am] She was the landlady. Having an affair with the husband. Wanted the wife out of the picture.

Outgoing: [12:17am] You'd have thought it boring.

Outgoing: [12:18am] Imagine Mrs. Hudson poisoning one of us.

Outgoing: [12:19am] More likely would have been you, what with your experiments creating a right mess.

Outgoing: [12:32am] It feels good to get out there again.

Outgoing: [12:33am] Bittersweet, more like it. Without you…

Outgoing: [1:02am] Come home?

[4/18]

Outgoing: [8:13am] That damn bloody brother of yours…

Outgoing: [8:14am] Why does he have to show up, with his pompous face and attitude

Outgoing: [8:14am] Making sure I'm well. Why does he care.

Outgoing: [8:15am] I should be of no concern to him anymore.

Outgoing: [8:15am] Showing up here, with those same eyes as you, and arrogant demeanor that you both share.

Outgoing: [8:16am] I hope it kills him to look in the mirror and see part of you looking back at him.

Outgoing: [12:35pm] It was good to see he was uncomfortable though.

Outgoing: [1:00pm] He should be.

[4/21]

Outgoing: [2:01am] Got another case today.

Outgoing: [2:02am] I think Lestrade wants to keep me busy.

Outgoing: [2:04am] I bet Mycroft spoke to him.

Outgoing: [2:06am] Oh well. I like it. Going back to the crime scenes.

Outgoing: [2:06am] Christ, I sound like you.

Outgoing: [2:07am] Priest was murdered in a church.

Outgoing: [2:08am] But I could tell he'd been sleeping with someone.

[4/26]

Outgoing: [7:26pm] We caught the killer.

Outgoing: [7:28pm] Turns out he was a serial. Killing priests who went against their vows. Or something.

Outgoing: [7:32pm] You would have liked him, I think.

[4/28]

Outgoing: [3:18pm] Ella says I should be putting all this in my blog.

Outgoing: [3:19pm] The cases and such. Says it would be good for me.

Outgoing: [3:21pm] But I only want to tell you.

Outgoing: [4:02pm] Isn't that strange?


	3. May

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Outgoing text messages to a dead man's phone.

[5/01]

Outgoing: [8:29pm] I see you. Now.

Outgoing: [8:30pm] I'm at a diner with Mike, and you're at a café across the street.

Outgoing: [8:31pm] I know it's not you. But it's so… spooky. It could be you. If I didn't know better.

Outgoing: [8:45pm] Now you're gone. And I'm sad, a little.

Outgoing: [8:50pm] His coat was all wrong.

Outgoing: [11:04pm] Even when your lookalikes leave me it's heartbreaking.

[5/03]

Outgoing: [3:06am] And just when I had begun to sleep a little better.

[5/05]

Outgoing: [5:15pm] Harry is worried. She's seen the texts.

Outgoing: [5:16pm] But she hasn't said anything.

Outgoing: [6:23pm] I won't stop.

[5/07]

Outgoing: [8:32am] Good morning.

Outgoing: [9:04am] You'd hate good morning texts. I know it.

Outgoing: [9:05am] Useless, you would call them.

Outgoing: [9:14am] It's funny how I think I know you.

Outgoing: [9:16am] Maybe I do.

Outgoing: [9:17am] But probably not.

Outgoing: [10:36pm] Goodnight.

Outgoing: [10:37pm] Useless.

[5/18]

Outgoing: [6:23pm] I feel like I should apologize for not texting in a while.

Outgoing: [6:27pm] Isn't that silly.

Outgoing: [6:28pm] Working on another case. This one is tricky.

Outgoing: [6:31pm] Children going missing. No trace. No clues.

Outgoing: [6:38pm] One clue. I barely noticed it. Took me three days. Would have taken you an hour.

Outgoing: [6:40pm] They were all born in the same hospital. Same year. But not in London.

Outgoing: [6:41pm] In Reading.

Outgoing: [6:48pm] Don't know what to make of it though.

[5/22]

Outgoing: [3:13am] I wish you were here.

[5/23]

Outgoing: [4:10pm] We caught him. A nurse.

Outgoing: [4:12pm] He was a bit around the bend. Just liked the game of hunting and killing.

Outgoing: [4:13pm] You might have liked this case too.

Outgoing: [7:22pm] I've decided to start writing up the cases again. Maybe that will help.

Outgoing: [7:25pm] Help what, I don't know.

[5/24]

Outgoing: [2:01am] Somehow I wound up in your room.

Outgoing: [2:03am] I don't know how. I fell asleep in mine.

Outgoing: [2:12am] Your bed still smells like you.

Outgoing: [2:14am] Like tea and spice. And chemicals.

Outgoing: [2:23am] Only you could make that combination appealing.

[5/26]

Outgoing: [3:54pm] You don't know how boring life has become without you here.

Outgoing: [4:00pm] If it weren't for Lestrade inviting me along every now and then, I wouldn't leave the flat but to work.

Outgoing: [4:23pm] Did you know how it would affect me when you jumped?

Outgoing: [4:31pm] Did you even care?

Outgoing: [5:12pm] I hate you.

Outgoing: [6:34pm] I mean it.

[5/27]

Outgoing: [1:12am] I don't hate you. I'm sorry.


	4. June

[6/01]

Outgoing: [3:23pm] Mycroft has taken to calling me every other day.

Outgoing: [3:25pm] Likes that I'm getting out more.

Outgoing: [4:02pm] I think I talk to him more for his sake than mine.

[6/03]

Outgoing: [5:12pm] I saw you again. At Tesco's.

Outgoing: [5:15pm] You really need to stop showing up when you're dead.

Outgoing: [5:19pm] I almost called out to you, but I didn't.

Outgoing: [5:27pm] Then I wouldn't have to confirm it wasn't really you.

[6/05]

Outgoing: [2:34am] Sometimes I wonder what you would be doing if you were alive somewhere.

Outgoing: [2:38am] Probably be somewhere in France or Denmark, solving crimes.

Outgoing: [2:41am] Or creating them.

Outgoing: [3:30am] I found myself in your bed again.

Outgoing: [3:32am] Though this time it was my decision.

Outgoing: [4:12am] Two years and it still smells like you.

Outgoing: [4:18am] I hope it doesn't go away.

[6/09]

Outgoing: [2:21pm] Another case.

Outgoing: [2:24pm] Even I find it rather boring. You would have solved it before Lestrade finished explaining it.

Outgoing: [2:31pm] Stolen jewelry.

Outgoing: [2:32pm] But it helped distract me.

[6/11]

Outgoing: [10:33am] Good morning.

Outgoing: [10:39am] People love the Reading case.

Outgoing: [10:41am] You'd make fun of the name, so I won't tell you.

Outgoing: [11:05pm] Your bed is so warm.

[6/13]

Outgoing: [2:12pm] I should tell you Mrs. Hudson really misses you.

Outgoing: [2:15pm] I can tell when she walks in, she looks around to see you.

Outgoing: [2:16pm] She never says anything, though.

Outgoing: [2:19pm] Wants to be strong, I suspect.

Outgoing: [4:34pm] She shouldn't have to be strong.

[6/14]

Outgoing: [1:35am] I wish I didn't have to be strong, either.

[6/15]

Outgoing: [1:45pm] Mycroft visited today, like last year. It was weird.

Outgoing: [1:46pm] It's always weird with Mycroft.

Outgoing: [1:50pm] But we just sat there. In silence.

Outgoing: [1:58pm] For about an hour, too. I think he just wanted to come by, to see the mess you've made still around this flat.

Outgoing: [2:01pm] Probably helps him feel like you're still here, in a way.

Outgoing: [2:12pm] Probably why I never cleaned this place.

[6/20]

Outgoing: [9:38pm] Went to Dublin with some old Rugby mates.

Outgoing: [9:40pm] Couldn't stand to be here…

Outgoing: [9:42pm] It was… nice.

Outgoing: [9:44pm] You were there, of course. At the match. On the other end of the stands from me.

Outgoing: [9:56pm] Maybe I should tell Ella.

Outgoing: [10:12pm] It hurts when I see you.

[6/21]

Outgoing: [8:42am] I've decided that if you aren't dead, and you come back.

Outgoing: [8:42am] I'm going to punch you.

Outgoing: [8:44am] Then probably kiss you.

[6/30]

Outgoing: [4:58pm] I turned off my phone again. It was more an experiment really.

Outgoing: [5:01pm] To see how long it took for Mycroft to show up. 9 days.

Outgoing: [5:02pm] I think he was disturbed by me smiling when I answered the door and he was there.

Outgoing: [5:03pm] Instructed me to never turn my phone off again.

Outgoing: [11:53pm] I meant what I said.

Outgoing: [11:56pm] In that order.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my head, Sherlock jumping was somewhere between June 13th and June 15th, based off the entries on John's blog. This is why Mycroft visits when he does, and why John leaves 221B.


	5. July

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Outgoing text messages to a dead man's phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for this one. I found it extra angsty.

[7/02]

Outgoing: [11:36am] Lestrade has offered me a paid position on the force.

Outgoing: [11:40am] I'm really tempted to take it.

Outgoing: [11:42am] How he got them to approve a paid consultant, I don't know.

Outgoing: [12:13pm] Mycroft is probably behind it. That bastard.

[7/03]

Outgoing: [1:13pm] I'm at your grave and there are flowers.

Outgoing: [1:14pm] From Molly. I haven't really spoken to her since…

Outgoing: [1:18pm] I should go visit her. See how she's doing.

Outgoing: [4:23pm] Leaving your grave is always the hardest.

Outgoing: [10:09pm] I think I'm going to accept Lestrade's offer.

[7/04]

Outgoing: [2:19am] I had a dream about you.

Outgoing: [2:26am] You really were a fake. A fraud.

Outgoing: [2:29am] But instead, I pushed Moriarty off the roof.

Outgoing: [2:45am] I didn't care that you were a fraud. I just wanted you alive.

Outgoing: [4:22am] I just want you alive.

[7/06]

Outgoing: [12:33pm] I took the job. It paid enough for me to quit the surgery.

Outgoing: [12:36pm] Mrs. Hudson isn't making me pay your half of the rent, so I thought why not.

Outgoing: [1:00pm] I only go in when Lestrade needs me, but I'm on salary. It's nice.

Outgoing: [1:06pm] I still think Mycroft is behind it. But I don't mind this one.

[7/08]

Outgoing: [3:02am] Sitting around all day isn't good for me.

Outgoing: [3:05am] I keep expecting you to rush in with a case.

Outgoing: [3:08am] Or Moriarty, to kill me.

Outgoing: [3:15am] Or for the flat to blow up.

Outgoing: [3:19am] This is going to take some getting used to.

Outgoing: [3:48am] Goodnight.

[7/13]

Outgoing: [4:54pm] Got a strange one the other day.

Outgoing: [4:56pm] Man found dead in a flat.

Outgoing: [5:00pm] Bullet didn't match any registered guns.

Outgoing: [5:10pm] But the strange thing… He was connected to Moriarty.

Outgoing: [5:11pm] Found his name in a notebook.

Outgoing: [5:13pm] And there was no other evidence left.

Outgoing: [5:21pm] We have no clue where to go.

[7/14]

Outgoing: [1:12am] I swear, if it's you…

Outgoing: [1:12am] But that's daft.

Outgoing: [1:13am] I would never forgive you.

Outgoing: [4:01am] I would. You know I would.

[7/16]

Outgoing: [2:34pm] Without anything to do, I just lay in your room all day.

Outgoing: [2:36pm] I wonder how you would react if you knew I was taking over your room.

Outgoing: [2:38pm] I can practically feel you spinning in your grave.

Outgoing: [2:40pm] Don't worry. I haven't even gone through anything.

Outgoing: [2:40pm] I just lie in your bed. And look at things. At the chaos in here.

Outgoing: [2:50pm] It's comforting.

Outgoing: [6:15pm] I wonder what it would have been like to lie in bed with you.

Outgoing: [6:16pm] All bones and angles. Not comfortable in the slightest, I bet.

Outgoing: [6:17pm] I bet your hands and feet would be cold too.

Outgoing: [6:23pm] Not that you would ever lie in a bed with me.

Outgoing: [6:25pm] Or anyone.

Outgoing: [6:26pm] Maybe Irene.

Outgoing: [11:02pm] I hope with me.

Outgoing: [11:58pm] Or else I'll just have insanity.

[7/18]

Outgoing: [4:18pm] It's you. I know it is.

Outgoing: [4:18pm] It has to be.

Outgoing: [4:19pm] Only you would think that scarf made a good disguise.

Outgoing: [4:25pm] Lestrade is trying to tell me it can't be you. He just doesn't know.

Outgoing: [4:26pm] I know it's you.

Outgoing: [4:28pm] Only it can't be. Because I saw you fall.

Outgoing: [4:40pm] Don't leave. You haven't even finished your coffee.

[7/19]

Outgoing: [3:20am] Do you know what you do to me? When you show up like that?

Outgoing: [3:21am] I think your ghost is trying to torment me.

Outgoing: [3:29am] Or maybe my brain is. Getting me back for calling you a machine…

Outgoing: [5:58am] You know I'll always believe in you, right?

[7/20]

Outgoing: [3:22pm] I bought some classical music CDs last year. To play in the flat.

Outgoing: [3:23pm] It's not the same as you playing, but it helps the place not be so quiet.

Outgoing: [4:02pm] Your violin is still sitting on the table by the window.

Outgoing: [4:03pm] Ready for you to pick it back up.

Outgoing: [4:05pm] I miss your playing.

[7/21]

Outgoing: [10:04am] Lestrade got some calls today about some bodies found in Scotland.

Outgoing: [10:05am] Two, connected with Moriarty as well. Same gun as killed the first.

Outgoing: [10:06am] I suppose it's useless to ask Mycroft if he's behind it, but I suspect he is.

Outgoing: [10:08am] I'm glad people are getting caught.

Outgoing: [11:34am] Lestrade says we'll be informed of anyone else found connected to Moriarty. That's nice.

Outgoing: [11:40am] Is your ghost going around taking revenge? That would be fitting.

Outgoing: [11:43am] Working even in death.

Outgoing: [1:36pm] Had lunch with Molly. It was nice.

Outgoing: [1:38pm] You would say boring. Or dull. Or nothing at all.

Outgoing: [1:40pm] Asked if I was seeing anyone. Not sure what she meant by that.

Outgoing: [1:41pm] And I told her I couldn't imagine seeing anyone in the state I'm in now.

Outgoing: [1:43pm] No one would understand me texting you at all hours of the day and night.

Outgoing: [3:57pm] No, the flowers she mentioned have a bitter smell, not sweet. Must have smelled her friends soap.

Outgoing: [3:58pm] Oops. That was meant for Lestrade. Working on a case, 14 yr old girl suspected of drowning her friend. Tragic.

Outgoing: [4:00pm] You would love it.

Outgoing: [4:25pm] To be honest, I miss your inappropriate excitement.

Outgoing: [4:30pm] It's not proper for me, but you could always get away with it.

Outgoing: [6:46pm] We're headed to where we think the girl is hiding.

Outgoing: [6:47pm] She killed her friend because her friend was going to spill that she was selling drugs.

Outgoing: [6:48pm] Which she was only doing because she had to buy food for her siblings.

Outgoing: [6:50pm] The father wouldn't do any of it. He's been arrested already.

Outgoing: [6:53pm] Brilliant, you would say. It's just tragic.

Outgoing: [9:58pm] The smell of chemicals is leaving your bedroom. I think I'm spending too much time in it.

Outgoing: [11:56pm] I don't know what I'll do when the smell leaves completely.

[7/27]

Outgoing: [8:12pm] I'm sorry.

Outgoing: [8:13pm] It got a little too hard to talk to you.

[7/29]

Outgoing: [3:43am] It's still a bit hard.


	6. August

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Outgoing text messages to a dead man's phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don’t man hunt me for the ending of this chapter.   
> Because then I won’t be able to write the next one.   
> Some explicit language in this as well. Mostly directed towards Mycroft.

[8/03]

  
Outgoing: [7:36am] I’ve been thinking about that time, when we were cuffed together.

Outgoing: [7:36am] And we were running from the police.

Outgoing: [7:38am] We held hands.

Outgoing: [7:39am] I regret that was the only time. It felt… nice.

Outgoing: [7:40am] Right.

Outgoing: [9:12am] I wrote about the men found who were connected to Moriarty

Outgoing: [9:13am] Some… bastard… went off about how he was glad you were dead. Because you’re a fake.

Outgoing: [9:14am] If anyone knew you… really knew you. They would know that you weren’t a fraud.

Outgoing: [9:27am] Christ, I thought this was going to be a good day.

Outgoing: [10:37pm] Goodnight, Sherlock.

[8/04]

Outgoing: [3:04am] I miss you.

[8/06]

Outgoing: [7:09pm] We’ve been working on this one case for a while, two weeks I’d say.

Outgoing: [7:09pm] Could really use your help. You’d have it solved. We’re pretty stumped.

Outgoing: [7:31pm] Man died of a bee sting. Allergic.

Outgoing: [7:45pm] But… there’s no bee. He was locked inside a clean room. Allergic to pretty much everything.

Outgoing: [7:56pm] No bee. But he clearly went in to A. shock.

Outgoing: [8:14pm] Was tied up in some pretty nasty business deals somehow. Motive?

Outgoing: [8:16pm] But it was a bee sting… I don’t get it.

[8/07]

Outgoing: [3:57am] I feel like you.

Outgoing: [3:58am] Laying on the couch staring at the ceiling trying to figure this out.

Outgoing: [4:03am] Only difference is you probably would have solved it already.

Outgoing: [5:32am] Bees…

[8/10]

Outgoing: [11:04am] Found a box with syringes in it today on the doorstep.

Outgoing: [11:08am] Contained bee venom. Or bee poison. Or whatever I suppose you would call it.

Outgoing: [11:10am] His business partner’s fingerprints were on them.

Outgoing: [11:32am] Thank you.

[8/13]

Outgoing: [4:15pm] I found your eyeballs today.

Outgoing: [4:16pm] These things have to have been in the freezer for five years.

Outgoing: [4:18pm] Better than the kidneys in the fridge I found last year.

Outgoing: [5:03pm] Can you believe they actually made me smile? The eyes I mean.

Outgoing: [5:06pm] I suppose I really miss you that much.

Outgoing: [5:14pm] Don’t suppose I’d even mind a severed head in the fridge at this point.

Outgoing: [11:52pm] Goodnight, Sherlock.

[8/15]

Outgoing: [2:23pm] Someone stopped me today on the street.

Outgoing: [2:24pm] You know what they said?

Outgoing: [2:24pm] That they believed in you.

Outgoing: [2:26pm] I didn’t know what to say. They just smiled and went on.

Outgoing: [2:30pm] It was a man, had to be around Lestrade’s age. I’m still baffled.

Outgoing: [2:35pm] It’s nice to know other people believe in you.

Outgoing: [2:36pm] Will you come back if enough people do?

Outgoing: [2:40pm] I wouldn’t rest until the whole world believed in you.

Outgoing: [9:58pm] If I put on Tchaikovsky at night it helps me sleep better.

Outgoing: [10:02pm] I can hear it just fine from your room.

Outgoing: [10:05pm] I can pretend you’ll slip into bed next to me just after I fall asleep and you’ve finished playing.

Outgoing: [11:34pm] Is this what it feels like to go insane?

[8/16]

Outgoing: [8:37am] Good morning.

Outgoing: [8:40am] Useless, you’d say.

[8/20]

Outgoing: [10:16am] A man was found in America. New York.

Outgoing: [10:17am] Connected to Moriarty. I’m not too sure what he was doing there.

Outgoing: [10:19am] Something about black market trades.

Outgoing: [10: 20am] Same bullet as the rest of them.

Outgoing: [11:00am] Is that why I haven’t seen you lately? Because you’ve been in America?

Outgoing: [1:15pm] You should come home.

[8/22]

Outgoing: [2:26pm] Fucking Mycroft...

Outgoing: [2:30pm] I know you’re probably reading this. Fuck you.

Outgoing: [2:31pm] Mycroft bugged the flat.

Outgoing: [2:32pm] I don’t know why. Probably all the men connected to Moriarty showing up dead. Worried they’ll retaliate or something.

Outgoing: [2:34pm] He can take his fucking bugs and cameras and shove them up his arse.

Outgoing: [2:38pm] He probably thinks I’m going insane, texting you all the time.

Outgoing: [2:45pm] I probably am.

[8/25]

Outgoing: [8:43pm] Got an anonymous tip about a man in London connected to Moriarty. Initials SM.

Outgoing: [8:44pm] Staked him out for two days, but he slipped past us somehow. Could be anywhere now.

Outgoing: [8:46pm] Was it you?

Outgoing: [9:00pm] You should have just taken care of him yourself, like the others.

Outgoing: [9:01pm] He wouldn’t have gotten away.

[8/27]

Outgoing: [4:16am] I pulled out your bathrobe today. It smells like you just took it off.

Outgoing: [4:17am] What is it about you that’s so desperate to linger after you’ve gone?

[8/28]

Outgoing: [12:02pm] Harry checked into a center today. Clara helped her.

Outgoing: [12:03pm] I think this time will stick. Clara has hope. That’s good.

Outgoing: [12:04pm] Very good.

[8/29]

Outgoing: [11:14pm] Goodnight, Sherlock. ****

**Incoming: [11:16pm]**

Outgoing: [11:20pm] Sherlock?   
  
_[Outgoing Call] 11:21pm_


	7. September

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Outgoing text messages to a dead man's phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so sorry for the long wait. School kind of got out of hand. It still is, but I chose to ignore it to finish this! So, as I promised on my Tumblr, here we go! Again, please withhold all flogging until the end of the fic.

[9/01]  
  
 _[Outgoing Call] 3:26am_  
  
Outgoing: [3:28am] Dammit, Sherlock.  
Outgoing: [3:30am] What are you playing at?  
Outgoing: [3:31am] Why does your voicemail greeting have to be so.... you?  
Outgoing: [3:34am] I didn’t leave your bed for two days after I heard your voice.  
Outgoing: [3:35am] Still haven’t left.  
  
 _[Outgoing Call] 3:40am_  
  
Outgoing: [5:43am] Looks like I’m not sleeping again.  
  
 _[Outgoing Call] 11:03am_  
  
Outgoing: [12:01pm] Please come home.  
Outgoing: [10:56pm] Goodnight, Sherlock.  
[9/04]  
Outgoing: [10:06am] I keep thinking you’re going to text me. Or call.  
Outgoing: [10:08am] And last night I had a dream you walked right into the bedroom and slipped into bed with me.  
Outgoing: [10:11am] And you kissed me.  
Outgoing: [10:16am] You never would have done that. Kiss me, I mean.  
Outgoing: [10:17am] I can actually see you crawling into bed with me. Be it for an experiment, or just because you needed the body heat next to you.  
Outgoing: [10:18am] I wouldn’t have minded.  
Outgoing: [10:18am] Either option.  
Outgoing: [7:36pm] Case today.  
Outgoing: [7:36pm] Not much to go on yet.  
Outgoing: [7:38pm] Just a missing persons. Something just felt off to Lestrade.  
  
 _[Outgoing call] 11:02pm_  
  
[9/05]  
Outgoing: [1:18am] Goodnight, Sherlock.  
[9/07]  
Outgoing: [7:19pm] Okay, Mycroft. I know full well you read these now.  
Outgoing: [7:20pm] The car that delivered your package was a little too obvious.  
Outgoing: [7:24pm] Maybe you wanted to be obvious. Of course you did. You only are if you’re meant to be.  
Outgoing: [7:30pm] Well fuck off, because I’m still going to text him.  
Outgoing: [7:42pm] This is all I have left of him.  
Outgoing: [7:58pm] Thank you for the tip...  
[9/08]  
Outgoing: [8:36am] Good morning.  
Outgoing: [9:48pm] I met someone today.  
Outgoing: [9:50pm] Her name is Mary.  
Outgoing: [9:53pm] I met her at this secondhand bookstore I was in looking for a book connected to the one your brother sent me.  
Outgoing: [9:54pm] She seems nice. Gave me her number.  
Outgoing: [9:56pm] Don’t know what she’d do with someone like me...  
Outgoing: [10:02pm] Don’t know what I’d do with someone like her.  
Outgoing: [11:09pm] Goodnight.  
[9/09]  
Outgoing: [6:15pm] The missing man is a writer.  
Outgoing: [6:16pm] Left incriminating messages about people in his earlier books.  
Outgoing: [6:18pm] Not quite sure what it means yet.  
[9/11]  
Outgoing: [9:02am] I almost thought I had it.  
Outgoing: [9:04am] I haven’t slept since yesterday. Been up all night trying to connect the dots.  
Outgoing: [9:07am] I have two of the people that are included in these messages. Very prominent business men.  
Outgoing: [9:09am] Not sure about the other three. The most recent one is the book Mycroft delivered. Not even released yet. But our best suspect.  
Outgoing: [9:13am] Just looking for a connection now.  
Outgoing: [12:04pm] Got a call from Clara.  
Outgoing: [12:05pm] Harry is doing real well.  
Outgoing: [12:06pm] Clara thinks she’s going to ask Harry to marry her again when she gets out in a couple weeks.  
Outgoing: [12:07pm] That’s fantastic, isn’t it?  
Outgoing: [12:08pm] You’d just sit there and hum. If you did at all.  
Outgoing: [12:09pm] I think Harry is really turning around.  
Outgoing: [12:11pm] I wish you could see. Even if you didn’t care.  
Outgoing: [10:34pm] Goodnight.  
[9/13]  
Outgoing: [2:43am] You’d have this figured out by now. You’d love it.  
Outgoing: [2:44am] I haven’t slept in three days. I really am turning into you.  
Outgoing: [2:47am] Probably the dressing gown.  
Outgoing: [3:02am] If only I could solve this case.  
Outgoing: [3: 06am] Feel free to chip in, Mycroft, if you have any leads.  
  
 _[Outgoing Call] 5:37am_  
  
Outgoing: [7:09pm] Figured out the third person. Had to go back for reference books.  
Outgoing: [7:10pm] Saw Mary again. She works there.  
Outgoing: [7:22pm] We’re getting coffee on Sunday.  
Outgoing: [7:35pm] She seems nice. I need some nice.  
Outgoing: [7:36pm] I need a distraction. From you.  
Outgoing: [7:49pm] Though I’d prefer if you’d just come back.  
[9/14]  
Outgoing: [2:17am] I miss you, Sherlock.  
[9/15]  
Outgoing: [8:33pm] Mary is... nice.  
Outgoing: [8:35pm] She seems a little not my type. But I suppose I don’t really know what that is anymore.  
Outgoing: [8:36pm] But she was nice.  
Outgoing: [8:40pm] Don’t know what she saw in me.  
Outgoing: [9:39pm] We’re getting dinner Thursday night.  
Outgoing: [10:04pm] What am I doing, Sherlock?  
[9/16]  
Outgoing: [3:18pm] Another tip on this SM guy. Looks like he might have been Moriarty’s top man.  
Outgoing: [3:19pm] He’s in Scotland. We’re headed there now.  
Outgoing: [3:22pm] Hopefully this time we’ll catch him.  
Outgoing: [3:23pm] Told Mary I had to move dinner. For the case.  
Outgoing: [3:24pm] She understood.  
Outgoing: [4:06pm] I wish you were here to help us catch him.  
Outgoing: [4:08pm] But I guess this one is for you, Sherlock.  
Outgoing: [4:09pm] We catch him, and it’s all over.  
Outgoing: [4:12pm] Lestrade just asked who I keep texting.  
Outgoing: [4:15pm] Wish I didn’t have to lie.  
[9/17]  
Outgoing: [8:26pm] Spent most of the afternoon hiding in an abandoned factory.  
Outgoing: [8:30pm] Some men working for this Moran guy, that’s who SM is, were there.  
Outgoing: [8:31pm] They’re trying to figure out who is taking down Moriarty’s web.  
Outgoing: [8:32pm] I’d like to know too, so I’d stop thinking it was you.  
Outgoing: [8:40pm] Don’t know how long we’ll be here in Scotland. Depends on if and how fast we catch Moran.  
Outgoing: [9:46pm] We could use your help, you bastard.  
[9/20]  
Outgoing: [9:35am] He got away again.  
Outgoing: [9:36am] Two days under cover and he still worked us out.  
Outgoing: [9:38am] But we have a tail on him. So we’ll know when he settles down again.  
Outgoing: [9:40am] Mycroft came to help afterall.  
Outgoing: [9:43am] Back to Baker Street until then.  
Outgoing: [9:46am] You’d be furious. You’d want to go after Moran. I sort of do too.  
Outgoing: [9:47am] I suppose that’s the difference between you and me, though.  
Outgoing: [9:50am] You’ll go rushing off without help, and I prefer to stay here until we sort out our business.  
Outgoing: [9:58am] You know I’d go rushing off after you though. You never did question that.  
Outgoing: [2:14pm] Called Mary. We’re getting dinner tomorrow.  
Outgoing: [2:15pm] At least I’ll have a story to tell her.  
Outgoing: [2:16pm] Is it sad I almost wish you would ruin this date too?  
Outgoing: [2:19pm] I’m sure somehow you will, despite everything.  
[9/21]  
Outgoing: [2:56am] Goodnight, Sherlock.  
Outgoing: [1:06pm] Should I be nervous?  
Outgoing: [1:07pm] It’s just dinner.  
Outgoing: [1:08pm] But I haven’t been on a proper date in four years, thanks to you.  
Outgoing: [1:08pm] It’s just dinner.  
Outgoing: [3:18pm] I guess Mrs. Hudson heard me pacing. Just brought up some tea and digestives.  
Outgoing: [3:19pm] The tea helped.  
Outgoing: [5:26pm] I think I’m expecting you to barge in and steal me away from my plans.  
Outgoing: [5:27pm] That’s why I can’t sit still. I’m just waiting for it.  
Outgoing: [5:27pm] But it won’t happen.  
Outgoing: [6:15pm] Well, here goes.  
Outgoing: [11:35pm] It went better than expected.  
Outgoing: [11:36pm] I didn’t even see you there.  
Outgoing: [11:38pm] She thinks being a consultant for the Yard is interesting.  
Outgoing: [11:41pm] I don’t think she sees the danger in it.  
Outgoing: [11:48pm] She already knew all about you. Wasn’t sure what to believe.  
Outgoing: [11:49pm] But I told her you weren’t a fraud. She at least knows that now. I think.  
Outgoing: [11:52pm] I think I want to see her again. I was too busy focusing on her to...  
Outgoing: [11:56pm] Yeah, I think I’ll see her again.  
Outgoing: [11:59pm] Goodnight, Sherlock.  
[9/23]  
Outgoing: [2:14pm] Lunch with Lestrade. Discussing this Moran guy.  
Outgoing: [2:15pm] He’s a soldier. Sniper. Sharp shot. Deadly.  
Outgoing: [2:18pm] Can see why Moriarty liked this guy.  
Outgoing: [2:22pm] Are you at the food cart on the corner?  
Outgoing: [2:23pm] Could be you. If you were ginger. That’d be a laugh.  
Outgoing: [2:39pm] I can tell Lestrade I’m texting Mary instead of hiding it. I don’t know if that’s good or if I should worry about myself.  
[9/24]  
Outgoing: [8:18am] Good morning. Working on that book case again, if there’s anything to come of it.  
Incoming: [8:18am] Moran is moving west. And quickly.  
Outgoing: [8:26am] Sherlock?  
  
 _[Outgoing Call] 8:31am_  
  
Outgoing: [8:36am] Sherlock, I swear to god...  
Incoming: [8:38am] I will keep my tail on him as best as possible. Don’t make any move with the police until I say so.  
  
 _[Outgoing Call] 8:40am_  
  
Incoming: [8:41am] Don’t bother calling. Texting is safer for all involved.  
Outgoing: [8:45am] Mycroft. Just what are you playing at using his phone?  
Outgoing: [8:46am] I have half a mind to march into that little club of yours and punch you.  
Incoming: [8:47am] I’m sorry John, but it is for the best. Sherlock is thought to be dead, no one would be checking his phone.  
Incoming: [8:48am] Safer.  
Outgoing: [8:52am] Could have... told me.  
Outgoing: [9:16am] Fuck you.  
[9/26]  
Outgoing: [11:18pm] Haven’t slept since fucking Mycroft began using your phone to give me heart attacks.  
Outgoing: [11:19pm] I don’t care that he can read these.  
Outgoing: [11:24pm] His help is great, but it’s nothing compared to what you could be doing.  
Outgoing: [11:30pm] But of course, we wouldn’t be in this mess if you were here.  
Outgoing: [11:32pm] Some other mess, I’m sure, though.  
[9/27]  
Outgoing: [1:18am] Spice and tea and chemicals.  
Outgoing: [1:19am] Goodnight, Sherlock.  
[9/29]  
Outgoing: [7:28pm] Saw Mary again today.  
Outgoing: [7:31pm] Discovered we both love curried chicken.  
Outgoing: [7:32pm] It’s nice not having to force feed someone  
Outgoing: [7:36pm] Could never have her over to the flat, not with the state you left it in...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry to disappoint anyone hoping for a reunion. Keep in mind that this is all strictly phone/text based so any sort of reunion would be lost on you guys anyway, and kind of cut this short. There’s still more to come. :3


End file.
